Supporting Life's Biggest Adventures and Construction

Lisa and James

I’ve been trying to figure out what to write this week, since Rich says it’s my turn to write the blog article. It doesn’t seem like too much of note has happened that is worth writing about!
We had a Skype call with Lisa and James last night. Do you guys remember them? We befriended Lisa a few years ago at church. We invited her over for dinner and got to meet her little boy, James.

I don’t remember exactly how it developed, but they started coming over for dinner every Monday night, and we’ve been doing that for the past couple of years.
For some reason, James loves coming over and he’s disappointed if something comes up that cancels the evening. He’s Rich’s little buddy. I think because James doesn’t have his dad around, he loves the father figure that he finds in Rich.

We always have dinner and dessert and then we watch some sort of show. It’s usually a documentary-style show that James can enjoy. But we all usually enjoy it.
Lisa’s dad lives in the Philippines. He has lived there for 20 years. Lisa told me how it was that he originally moved there, but I don’t remember now.

He has been kind of estranged from the family, until just lately.

Lisa got a call one night from her dad’s caregiver/girlfriend/companion (not sure which), saying that her dad wasn’t doing well and could Lisa come over? Within just a few days both Lisa and James were on a flight to Manila.
Lisa assessed the situation, talked to her dad, talked to the caregiver, and then came back home.

A few more phone calls followed, and the next thing we knew, Lisa had decided to take James and move to the Philippines to take care of her dad!
Apparently he refused to leave the country but also couldn’t take care of himself, and the caregiver couldn’t handle the advanced care he needed.

Rich and I were very surprised at Lisa’s decision. Rich felt like it was a bad idea because he thinks Lisa’s dad will continue to deteriorate and then he will have to come back to the US, and then it will be a real ordeal to get him here.
He did share his thoughts with Lisa, but she had made up her mind and was pretty set.

When she was in the Philippines that first visit, Lisa had actually checked into schooling options for James. So even at that time, she was thinking in the back of her mind about moving there.
It was a good thing, I guess, that she scoped out the schools. It made it an easier transition for both her and James, knowing where he’d be going to school.

So they did pack up and leave. We had a few more Monday night meals with them before their departure.

Since they left, we have kept in touch with them by Skype calls. They are lonely there, so the Skype calls help them. And we miss them, of course, so the Skype calls help us too.